Radar Dectectors

[FicklePete]

I was out today for what might be my last ride of the season, when I had a close encounter with the long arm of the law. I was heading North on Route 127 coming out of Manchester Ma in a 40 mph zone. Up ahead was a nice left hand sweeper that I was in the middle of enjoying when I came upon two of Manchester's finest shooting radar. Being mid turn when I spoted the cruisers I just held my line and finished the turn before pulling promptly over next to the officer. He had turned his lights on as soon as we spoted each other so I knew I was bagged. What I didn't realize is the the 40 mph zone had droped to a 30 mph zone right before the start of the turn.

Cop was a good guy, complemented my bike and gave me a warning for 46 in a 30. This brings me to the point of this thread....Radar detectors. Do people find them helpful or are they just ticket detectors? If you use them...what kind..Escort? Valentine 1?

[cdseven95]

I have a v1 and a escort.. I use the escort on the bike since its not a huge brick like the v1...

Works great for radar...

Laser ..... Unless you are extremely lucky and get a stray signal off another car by the time you get the warning they have your speed.


I have only been hit by laser twice and both times on the highway.

[noodles44]

The quality detectors are in fact useful. You may or may not find them worth the money if you don't frequently get pulled over though. If you want more information about what others like, or reviews and tests of the latest gear check out http://www.radardetector.net/forums/
On my bike I use a Bel RX-75 Plus, it works great, but Bel now has the STI-R which is supposed to be better.
http://www.radarbusters.com/radar-de...ardetector.cfm

[rice_rocket]

Lidar doesn't show up (Laser) unless he sprays it... the rest, help a LOT for me in my car. It's funny since I switched to a less flashy car since feb, and my car hardly gets scanned.. before then, that radar detector was going nuts all the time at least twice a day on my commute to and from work!

That being said... it "can" help you out in some instances and warn you, if they are out to get you.. you're tagged. In the sweeper you mentioned, if they were scanning people you "might" have gotten a signal.. but would it have stopped you from taking the turn?

Seriously.. they do work around bends etc on the highway for my car.. I see no reason why it wouldn't work out for a bike. If you have $300 to throw down, it can get you a pretty nice one. Or.. look around on ebay for older models and you can get good deals.

[Punjistick]

I have a V1 and I'm amazed at the range it can detect stuff. For instance, just today my town parked one of those "your speed is" radar trailer things on a really hilly road. The unit was facing away from me (so I was coming up behind it) and my detector still went off with plenty of time to slow if it had been a cop. The other thing is that it was at the bottom of a hill and so it was able to detect it from 2 or 3 hills away. Pretty cool if you consider the line of sight. It won't save you in all situations like instant-on radar but if you are lucky it might detect radar being used on a car ahead of you and give you time to slow down. At the very least, it causes you to be a bit more aware of where cops might be hiding. I chose the V1 for the directional arrows but the Escort 9500 is nice for the ability to mark false threats.

[hondarider102]

i have an escort passport 9500i and its awesome, saved me from well over 50 tickets in my truck and when i mount it to the bike it undoubtedly saves me from 1 or 2 each ride lol

[JohnnyX-14]

I find mine absolutely indispensible. I do not enjoy being without it. I use the Escort
Solo (portable: battery powered, ideal for bikes). 2 AA bateries last most of season: about
5000 miles. I use an earbud in the helmet for the audio alert as there is much info carried
in the differnt sounds.

There is a learning curve. One has to learn what the different signals mean from experience.

For example, some intermittent little chirps would be bounced reflected radar signals from
a transmitter located around a curve or over a hill and maybe up to 2 miles ahead.
Even the lasers can be heard under certain conditions bouncing off the sides of vehicles
up ahead, but here you only get one or two weird squalks then nothing until it goes
crazy if you are painted.

Do you realize how often when passing through a small town, the local LEO will pull out
from some alley off Main St. and follow those 2 to 4 bikers out of town while hanging
back a half mile to a mile behind, with the radar on, just waiting for them to start ripping?

Works great at night when you're ripping home down the slab after a long day ride.

However, there's no substitute for keeping your eyes peeled!

I consider the detector to be my most valuable and important accessory.

[danny86]

I have the Cheetah M27 Laser Jammer for my bike. Cost $600.00

State Police generally use Laser. Laser detector's are useless, the jammer I bought blocks their guns.

So it goes like this...

Traveling 80mph
Trooper with a laser shoots me
Can't get reading
I see him, I hit the brakes to the speed limit
Shut off jammer
Then the officer gets me doing the speed limit.

Of course this isnt always textbook, as in you cant be doing 130mpg and expect this to work. But generally this has saved me more times than I can count and paid for itself 100x over.

[Stan]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9530/5.0.0.328 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I love my valentine 1, been driving for 6 or so years and have never had a speeding ticket.

[DocCola]

I have a V1 in my Evo. It has saved me numerous times on my trips to and from the Cape (hello 495, aka cop heaven) and many other times all over the place. My V1 is mounted high on my windshield (right behind/below my rear view) and it gets amazing signal up the road. I have had it beep for 2-3 minutes on the highway until I finally come up on the cop. Gotta love that distance.

As for the bike, I don't use a radar detector on it yet, but I might eventually adadpt to do so.

Laser is a pain but I've been saved plenty of times by a vehicle ahead of me getting lasered and the V1 picks it up. I wouldn't mind a nice jammer system. That would be nice.

[markbvt]

Another vote for the Valentine 1. Mine has warned me of plenty of upcoming speed traps, and it just generally increases situational awareness. Two of its best features are that it shows the direction the radar is coming from and the number of radar signals. Even though it doesn't filter out junk signals as well as the Escort apparently does, you quickly learn to distinguish what's likely to be a cop shooting radar and what's just a grocery store door sensor.

--mark

[JohnnyX-14]

Yep, I need a laser jammer. I presume the jammer and laser detector will work together?
I'll have to look into that.

[JohnnyX-14]

Yes, the Escort Solo (2 yrs old) really impresses me with its ability to ignore security
electronics even when set to the auto mode (it chooses to set the highway/city
sensitivity modes by itself on the fly).

[FicklePete]

Thanks for the feedback. I came across this unit and was wondering if anyone has any experiance with it.


http://www.adaptivtech.com/nks

[Fitz]

2002 One Lap of America
2005 One Lap of America

Speeding ticket free since day one... even when people are actively hunting for stickered up stupid fast cars trying to make it to the next event. I love both the V1 and the Escort.

Fitz

[Half Squid]

MY V1 has saved me MANY, MANY, many times in my Truck and on the bike!!! I have not done an update yet in the 6 years I have had it so it is probably due. I still pick up standard bands a few miles away. (probably 1-2 miles?)

Best part I like about the V1 is you do not have to buy a new radar dectector to get an updated unit. Just send in your unit for $100 and they will upgrade your unit. The valentine web site allows you to check you serial # to see if your unit needs an update or not.

for V1

[richw]

I mostly see laser on multilane highways where I try not to use a bike.

In the moutains usually its radar and it helps

I always say it saved me 1 or 2 tickects a year